Although Sanyal is known mostly as a novelist, he was also an eminent civil engineer by profession. After graduating in science from the University of Calcutta, he passed Bachelor of Engineering from Bengal Engineering College in 1948. Thereafter he joined Public Works Department and later National Buildings Organisation, Ministry of Works and Housing, Eastern Region, Govt of India. He was a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India) and a Fellow of the Association of Engineers (India). He also wrote books in Civil Engineering such as Vaastu Vigyan.

A biography of Narayan Sanyal was written by Pradip Dutta – Ami Narayan Sanyal Ke Dekhechi.

A Documentary on Writer Narayan Sanyal was screened on the 18th Kolkata International Film Festival on 15th november 2012 at Bangla Academy . The film " CHOKHER DEKHA PRANER KOTHA .... Narayan Sanyal " in Bengali named by his elder son-in-law Amitabha basu , was directed by his younger son-in-law Soumitra talukdar and produced by his younger daughter Mou Sanyal .

Sanyal wrote numerous books[2] that dealt with various topics, such as children, science, art and architecture, travels, psychiatry, technology, refugee problems, history, biographical pieces, encyclopaedia of animals, social novel and Devadasi-related.

Interestingly, this talented author also preferred writing books on deep shadow of many world famous works. One of the most popular Sci-Fictions Nakshatraloker Debatatma [নক্ষত্রলোকের দেবতাত্মা], is based on the transformation of human race from primitive creature to civilised intelligent species controlling the whole earth. Then it deals with Jupiter exploration and a super intelligent Computer HAL. The three parted book is an inspiration of 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. In his book, Sanyal named HAL as Jantra-Na, in his mother tongue Bengali, it ambiguously means 'not a machine' as well as 'pain'.

Apart from this series, he wrote Bishupal Bodh: Uposonghar [বিশুপাল বধ: উপসংহার], which is basically a completion of Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay's unfinished Byomkesh Bakshi story: Bishupal Bodh. NarayanBabu fulfilled some terms given by Bandyopadhyay's friend Pratul Chandra Gupta, who edited Bandyopadhyay's works. Samaresh Basu, as the editor (also a friend of Sanyal) of Mahanagar, a magazine, published it in a Puja issue.[3]

It must be clearly mentioned that Sanyal did not just copy, he took the central theme and then adopted in proper Bengali atmosphere, so that the reader can find it as their homely incidents. For this reason some changes in the original plot and a few anachronisms (that suit, e.g. offering a chair to the accused & the witness at the courtroom in India—- which is not generally the practice) necessarily occur in his writings, and he was fully aware of that facts. Besides, he everywhere mentioned the source, the changes he made in his script and why these are necessary. He also tried to keep the nomenclature resembling the original ones so as to offer his gratitude. He often referred P. K. Basu to "the Perry Mason of the East", as he was inspired to create Basu from this masterpiece of Erle Stanley Gardner.

It is undoubtedly accepted by all that NarayanBabu was one of the finest authors in Bengali and he was a class apart from the flock of contemporary Bengali writers those who too dependent on sentiment and emotional overdose in their writings and too dependent on monopolist Bengali media/publication groups in commercial front.

He received several awards for literature including Rabindra Puraskar (for Aporupa Ajanta in 1969), Bankim Puraskar (for Rupmanjari in 2000), and Narasingha Dutta Award. Many of his books were filmed and he won the Best Film Story Writer Award (for Satyakaam) by Bengal Film Journalists.

Biswasghatak [বিশ্বাসঘাতক] (1974)—This is a book about the story of the Manhattan Project in the US during the 1930s and has a good insight on the type of collective intellect that worked together to make the project a success. This book also displays the win of economics and politics over "common sense" and the disastrous aftermath of such an action.

All books of the Kanta series are of Prasanna Kumar Basu (famously known as P. K. Basu), Bar at Law.

1.Nagchampa [নাগচম্পা] (Published: 1968)

This novel is the first P. K. Basu story by Sanyal, though he called it as a "trial ball". It was later adopted in a Bengali movie, Jodi Jantem in 1974. Here, Basu is shown to be an old, unmarried man; who solves the death mystery of a businessman. Sujata, who is an essential character of the following stories, was accused of murder. Koushik, in a disguise of a driver, also helps her. Koushik is a typical example of bulk of the engineers who fails to manage any satisfiable job.

After Jodi Jantem, he changed the character Basu to be an aged lawyer, whose wife Ranu is made invalid & Suborna alias Mithu, their only daughter is died in an accident. This novel marks the proper starting of the series. This is based on a murder of Ramen Guha, a policeman and some other incidents at The Repose, a hotel at Ghum, Darjeeling, run by the Mitra couple, Sujata & Koushik Mitra.

Mitra couple returns Kolkata, after selling the hotel and starts a private detective agency, named Sukoushali [সুকৌশলী] at Basu's residence at New Alipore. This story revolves about Supriya Dashgupta [সুপ্রিয় দাশগুপ্ত], a manager of a Bombay based farm. At the end of the story, the caught person is proved to be different than the original culprit.

Old Jagadananda Sen lives with granddaughter Nilima Sen, nephew Jogananda and Jogananda's relative Shyamal. Mahendra, his ex-employee, whom he revoked, suddenly comes back and starts blackmailing Jagadananda. He, then seeks help from Basu. Meanwhile, police arrests Jagadananda in charge of killing his own nephew Jogananda. Joydeep, Nilima's fiance shadows another ex-employee of Jagadananda, Yu Siang, a Burmese, who is also supposed to come India to blackmail the old man. Finally, Basu succeeds to make him free catching the culprit.

Rabi Bosu, a police inspector, who is prevalent in some later stories, is introduced. This story is about a ticket of lottery and a murder. Basu makes Prakash Sengupta, a doctor free from all charges of killing his friend, Kamalesh Mitter.

Mahadeo Prasad Khanna, an ex-M. P. was murdered in a lonely cottage in Kashmir. A parrot is taught in such a way that Rama Khanna, a Bengali lady, supposed to be married by Khanna is kept in the lock-up. Basu finally solves the issue by tracing some clues at the cottage, that includes a pair of wool knitting sticks (in Bengali, which are called Uler Kanta).

ChandraaChoor Chatterjee [চন্দ্রচূড় চ্যাটার্জী] of Chandannagar was murdered by his brother in law Bikash Mukherjee. Bikash makes an excellent plan to put the blame on a retired Mathematics teacher ShibajeeProtap Chakraborty. Chakraborty has a bit psychological problems and has past records of attempt of murder unconsciously. Bikash takes full advantage of this, by sending some letters to Basu. These letters apparently seem to be a childish or lunatic job, as it contain quotations & pictures from Sukumar Ray's writings for children and some hotchpotch of Sanskrit & English, but the thing turns serious when murders are made in Asansol and Burdwan (these two names are mentioned in the letters).

Miss Pamela Johnson of Merinagar, a hypothetical township near Kanchrapara, West Bengal dies at age 72. She donates all her belongings to her servants and non-profitable organisations, totally unexpectedly, as everyone anticipates that the old lady would give it to her relatives: Suresh Haldar, Smrituku Haldar alias Tuku & Hena Thakur. This novel is unique in a way as it is written in a first person speech of Koushik Mitra.

A distressed lady, Chhanda, is presently married to Tridib Narayan Rao, son of Tribikram Narayan Rao who is an aristocrat Rajput and also a business tycoon. She is accused of a murder of her previous husband Kamalendu Biswas alias Kamalskha Kar alias Kamal Chandra Ghosh, who also had previous marriages. Basu saves the poor lady.